48 DEEP SEA FISHES. 



tine teeth; tongue smooth. Eyes large, lateral. Edge of preopercle ser- 

 rate ; a large spine at the angle. Opercle with three spines. Gills four ; 

 gill openings wide ; membranes not united, free from the isthmus ; rakei-s 

 numerous, slender. A vertically elongate sujjrabranchial gland. Seven 

 branchiostegal rays. A strong sharp antrorse spiue on the middle of the 

 lower edge of the urohyal. Scales small, ctenoid, covering cheeks and 

 interorbital space, absent from bases of dorsal and anal and from snout. 

 Lateral line complete, nearly parallel with the vertebral outline. Dorsal 

 with ten spines and about fourteen soft rays. Anal with three spines and 

 eight soft rays. Ventrals inserted below the bases of the pectorals, close 

 together, each with a moderately strong spine and five soft rays. Pyloric 

 caBca few. Vertebrae twenty-six. 



Centristhmus signifer sp. n. 



Plate LXIX. fig. 5, urohi/al. 



Br. r. 7; D. X, 13-14; A. Ill, 8; V. I, 5; P. 19; LI. 110 scales, 62 

 pores; Ltr. 7 + 28; Vert. 26. 



In its outlines this species bears some resemblance to Anthias multifas- 

 ciatus, but the snout is larger, the lower jaw is more prominent, the head 

 is less completely covered by scales, the preoporcular spine is larger, and 

 the scales are much smaller. Body much compressed, greatest depth nearly 

 one fourth of the entire length, two thirds as deep and two fifths as wide as 

 long, nearly straight from end of snout to nape or slightly concave above 

 the eyes, little arched across the crown, vertical on the sides, hardly swollen 

 on the narial region. Mouth medium, oblique ; maxillary reaching a verti- 

 cal from the middle of the eye, truncate at the end, which is half as wide as 

 the eye. Teeth on the jaws in villiform bands, with a larger outer series, 

 with one or two small hooked canines near the symphysis in front and one 

 or two smaller ones close at each side of the symphysis a little backward of 

 the first in the upper bands, and with one or two similar canines in front on 

 each lower jaw and behind these near the middle of the cleft a smaller one 

 or more ; teeth on the vomer in a narrow V-shaped band, of which the tooth 

 at the apex resembles the canines ; palatine teeth in narrow bands, of one or 

 two series. Tongue paliform, narrow, pointed, toothless. Nostrils superior, 

 small, close together; anterior very small, with a short tubular valve; 

 posterior near the upper half of the eye. E^'e large, prominent, as long as 



